I wouldn’t normally recommend paying cash for airline status, but the TAP status match for BA club members sits in that awkward sweet spot where the numbers can actually work. TAP Air Portugal (a Star Alliance member) lets you match British Airways Club Silver straight to TAP Miles&Go Gold for €199, giving you Star Alliance Gold for 12 months. No flight requirement. No “do three segments in the next 14 days” nonsense. You pay the fee, upload proof, and you (usually) get the card.
The value question is boring but unavoidable: will you fly Star Alliance enough over the next year to justify €199? If you’ve got several Star Alliance trips coming up, lounge access alone can pay for itself. That matters most on short European hops in economy, where airports feel like a contact sport and airlines still treat a carry-on bag like a luxury item. Star Alliance Gold typically gets you lounge access on same-day Star Alliance itineraries, priority check-in, priority boarding, extra baggage, and priority baggage handling across the alliance. In other words, it gives you tools to make economy less grim. Read Our Review Of TAP Miles&Go.
If you’re BA Bronze, I’d skip it. BA Bronze only matches to TAP Miles&Go Silver (Star Alliance Silver), and Star Alliance Silver doesn’t bring alliance-wide lounge access. Paying €49 for that looks like a false economy. BA Gold and BA Silver both map to TAP Miles&Go Gold, so the decision becomes tactical: do you want a year of Star Alliance top-tier perks alongside your Oneworld status, or do you stick to one ecosystem? If you’re switching allegiance following the BA Club shake-up, this match could provide a smooth onboarding without the loss of benefits.
Now for a quick reality check on the “Star Alliance Gold is more consistent than oneworld Sapphire” claim: the perks are broadly similar on paper, and both are useless if you don’t fly the alliance. The difference shows up in the implementation: airport agents, lounge operators, and ground handling. Oneworld Sapphire can feel inconsistent because lounge access and priority services often depend on which airline runs the lounge, which third-party operator handles the contract lounge, and how busy the airport feels that day. UK travellers also tend to benchmark Sapphire via BA Silver, and BA’s delivery of “priority” can be optimistic at best. Star Alliance Gold often feels more predictable in Europe because you can fly multiple Star Alliance airlines across major hubs and still see the same core benefits applied in a consistent way. That’s not magic. It’s just how the alliance gets implemented on the ground – especially when Lufthansa Group operates a large part of the European network.
Let’s move on to the part that matters if you’re thinking beyond year one: renewal. The match lasts 12 months. Keeping Gold after that normally requires 70,000 status miles or 50 TAP segments. TAP also throws in double status miles for 30 days after approval, capped at 10,000 status miles, which helps but won’t carry you to renewal on its own. Here’s the practical snag: if your plan involves routing everything through Lisbon, you should know Humberto Delgado Airport has become a painful place to connect. Technology problems at immigration and general overcrowding have made transits unreliable and slow, especially at peak times.
The good news: you can requalify without touching a TAP aircraft. You can earn the 70,000 status miles through Star Alliance flights, so you can keep the status while flying Lufthansa, SWISS, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, United, Air Canada, Aegean, Turkish and the rest. That makes the TAP status match for BA Club Silver and Gold members far more viable for anyone who already flies Star Alliance regularly, but hasn’t bothered to chase TAP status the old-fashioned way.
You could, potentially, also use your TAP status to gain lounge access while you credit your status miles to another Star Alliance programme. To do this, you’ll need to add your TAP number to your reservation and then ask the agents at the gate to change your frequent flyer number before boarding commences. Keep in mind that some airlines and their agents will be difficult about doing it.
One last admin note. Virgin Atlantic Flying Club members can’t take part – even if they have gold status – and the status match runs through a third-party operator (statusmatch.com), so you’ll see their branding during the process.
If you have Star Alliance trips lined up, the status match from BA to TAP can be a straightforward way to buy a year of fewer queues and access to lounges. If you match and then don’t use it, you’ll just have an expensive digital card on your phone.
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